A tale of two legacies and the impact of BYU’s new medical school on future generations

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Wednesday was my father’s 84th birthday. He died 30 years ago, so my six sisters and I have been texting about memories.

Growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we thought Dad was impossibly odd whenever he poured the crumby dregs of three different cereals together into one bowl, doused the unthinkable combination with milk, and ate it with a wink and the mischievous smile that displayed his dimple. After some dinners, he scooped leftover rice in a bowl, added milk, cinnamon and a little sugar and ate it like a treat.

Now we understand better that he was born at the tail end of the Great Depression, the last of four boys whose mother raised them while the young family struggled financially before better days. Lila Walch taught her sons not to throw away a butter wrapper without scraping it off to avoid waste.

Dad’s birthday — and President Russell M. Nelson’s approaching 100th birthday on Sept. 9 — have me thinking about the endowments the two have worked to leave behind for future generations.

The announcement by the First Presidency that BYU will launch a medical school prompted similar thoughts for Dr. Bob Carter, the chief of Harvard’s Neurosurgery Department.

President Nelson is the chairman of BYU’s board of trustees, so the medical school will be part of his legacy as the 17th prophet and president of the church. That will mean so much more because of the historic medical career he had before stepping away from the operating room to accept a calling as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Nelson was, among other accomplishments, the first to perform an open-heart operation west of the Mississippi . He performed approximately 7,000 operations and trained others to perform open-heart surgery around the world.

Dr. Carter carefully chose his words to describe what it will mean to future BYU medical students that President Nelson was the one at the head of the First Presidency and board of trustees when the medical school was announced.

“This is a very special — I won’t say a capstone; I’ll never say capstone with President Nelson because you never know what’s coming next — but a very special mark of his imprimatur, because of his legacy as a physician,” Dr. Carter said. “I find it incredibly exciting.”

My recent stories

Lightning strike causes Angel Moroni replacement to step in atop a Latter-day Saint temple (Aug. 6)

Utah YSA conference broke Guinness records for largest speed date and President Nelson birthday card (Aug. 5)

How rare are faith-based medical schools? (Aug. 4)

Teachings of Russell M. Nelson manual begins to be released (Aug. 1)

Apostle, speed dating, world-record attempts highlight schedule for 2024 Utah Area YSA Conference (July 31)

About the church

A sister missionary died while serving in her native Haiti .

What surprised a British journalist after spending time with Latter-day Saints .

The Church of Jesus Christ donated enough food to a Canadian food bank for 2 million meals .

The church also donated medical equipment to Honduras hospitals .

Outgoing Church News Editor Sarah Jane Weaver on the sacred responsibility of working to create a “living record of the Restoration.”

Latter-day Saints in the Olympics:

• Fijian Latter-day Saint Olympian wins silver medal in Paris .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, day 12: USA’s Kenneth Rooks wins silver medal in the steeplechase .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, day 11: How steeplechaser Courtney Wayment did in the finals .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, day 10: Kenneth Rooks advances to final and Jimmer Fredette’s injury .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, days 8-9: Steeplechaser Courtney Wayment advances to the steeplechase finals .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, day 7: Whittni Morgan advances to the 5,000-meter finals .
• Latter-day Saints in the Olympics, days 5 & 6: Jimmer Fredette is hurt .

What I’m reading

Need a laugh? Our Meg Walter wrote a very funny piece about how we normal humans look in our race photos. One paragraph really stood out. See if you laugh as hard as I did.

A man involved in the theft of a Jackie Robinson statue from a Little League park got 15 years in prison . The next day, a replacement statue was unveiled , paid for by Major League Baseball.

Now that we have both American vice presidential candidates in place, here’s what JD Vance has said about faith , and what Tim Walz has said about faith .

An iceberg is stuck spinning in circles in the ocean. “Round and round a city-size iceberg goes, stuck in a vortex over an underwater mountain. When it will stop, nobody knows,” writes The New York Times.

My colleague Jacob Hess has completed a trio of interesting stories where artists talk about their portrayals of Jesus Christ. Here they are:

• Portraying Jesus in film .
• Portraying Jesus in paintings .
• Portraying Jesus in song .

He also found more “beautiful songs about Jesus Christ are being created now than any time in history, including among Latter-day Saint songwriters .”

Behind the scenes